Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review

Michelle Donelan Excerpts

Wednesday 21st February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

All I can say is that we completely understand those concerns and the despair that many people feel about this issue, but it is difficult to resolve it quickly when there is disagreement among the scientists. What we are trying to do today is to create a process to resolve that disagreement, and that is what I very much hope will happen.

[Michelle Donelan (Chippenham) (Con)]

I welcome the announcement of this much needed safety review. All UK citizens should be confident that the most rigorous safety standards are in place. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that the review will not have an impact on initiatives such as the accelerated access review and the cancer drug fund, which have fast-tracked access to much needed drugs and treatments?

[Mr Hunt]

I can confirm that, although it is also important to say that if we discover changes in procedures that will improve the safety of medicine use or medical device use, the people who put those new drugs on the market would want to benefit from any changes in regulatory processes, but what we would not want to do is reduce the speed.